About
From 2005 to today: the story of the site, from blog.narnia.ch to narnia.guide, its original team and its commitments.
- Created in April 2005 by Philippe Kiener, with a team from French-speaking Switzerland.
- Offline since 2010, relaunched in 2026 by Philippe Kiener under the name narnia.guide.
- A site made by enthusiasts, not an official site.
A wardrobe opened again
blog.narnia.ch was born in April 2005, a few months before the release of the first film, The Chronicles of Narnia. Philippe Kiener created it to give, in French, reliable information about the films produced by Walden Media, and to open up the world of Narnia and its author, C.S. Lewis. The first article is dated 25 April 2005.
The team of 2005
The 'Who are we?' page, published on 6 August 2005, introduced the team as follows, almost all of them based in French-speaking Switzerland:
- Philippe Kiener: webmaster and project leader;
- Yann Petter: translation, character analysis, history, 'specialist in the world of Narnia';
- Steve Tanner and Marc Varidel: translation and articles on C.S. Lewis;
- Christophe Maffini: film column;
- Raphaël Noir: music;
- Sophie Gertsch: podcasts and interviews;
- Esaïe Bergier: forum moderation and information-gathering.
These are the roles announced at the time; the actual division of the work may have changed later. The site was hosted by Artszone, an artistic collective in French-speaking Switzerland. Other writers contributed as the months went by; their texts are kept under their own names (see Credits and sources).
Silence, then a return
After the excitement of 2005 and 2006, the pace slowed. The last article dates from April 2010, and the site has been offline since 2010. Its pages survived thanks to the web archives: their story and their figures are told in the blog archives.
In 2026, as Greta Gerwig's film drew near, Philippe Kiener relaunched the site, now at the address narnia.guide, with a wider ambition: to become a way in, in French, to the seven Chronicles and to the whole of C.S. Lewis's work.
What you will find here
- A page for each book, with a spoiler-free summary and then a full summary.
- Entries on the characters, the places, the objects and the peoples, and original maps.
- Articles for understanding the books, and for discovering the life and work of Lewis.
- One brief a day in the news feed.
Our commitments
- Check: dates and facts are verified, and uncertain points are marked as such.
- Write it ourselves: we consult other sites and reference works, but we write in our own words and we cite our sources.
- Respect the old texts: the texts from 2005-2010 are kept with their author; their errors of fact have been corrected, and each correction is recorded.
- Original images: the illustrations are made for this site; they reproduce neither the films nor the drawings of Pauline Baynes.
A site for enthusiasts, not an official one
narnia.guide is a readers' site, with no connection to the rights-holders of C.S. Lewis, the publishers or the producers of the films. The details are set out in the legal notice. A question, or a mistake to report? Write to us through the Contact page.